April 21, 2015

Tuesday of the Third Week of EasterLectionary: 274

Stephen said to the people, the elders, and the scribes:“You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears,you always oppose the Holy Spirit;you are just like your ancestors.Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute?They put to death those who foretold the coming of the righteous one,whose betrayers and murderers you have now become.You received the law as transmitted by angels,but you did not observe it.”

When they heard this, they were infuriated,and they ground their teeth at him.But Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit,looked up intently to heaven and saw the glory of Godand Jesus standing at the right hand of God,and Stephen said, “Behold, I see the heavens openedand the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”But they cried out in a loud voice,covered their ears, and rushed upon him together.They threw him out of the city, and began to stone him.The witnesses laid down their cloaksat the feet of a young man named Saul. As they were stoning Stephen, he called out,“Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”Then he fell to his knees and cried out in a loud voice,“Lord, do not hold this sin against them”;and when he said this, he fell asleep.

The crowd said to Jesus:“What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you?What can you do?Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, as it is written:

He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”

So Jesus said to them,“Amen, amen, I say to you,it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven;my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heavenand gives life to the world.”

So they said to Jesus,“Sir, give us this bread always.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life;whoever comes to me will never hunger,and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”

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